SNOW! It is snow which seems to have shaped everything for the last month. Almost everyone in the UK and Ireland has experienced some snow in the last few weeks, and everyone has had bitterly cold weather, but here in Scotland it started in November, of all things, and has continued relentlessly. Those living elsewhere think of Scotland as normally cold, but we live on the coast and, although the east wind can be bitter in winter, generally speaking we get very little snow. I never remember it coming as early as it has this year. Last winter was quite bad from the end of December, but this year it has started a whole month earlier. At least our cocker spaniel Sasha enjoys it.

The last weekend in October was surprisingly mild, difficult to envisage now, amidst our early winter snows. Taking advantage of a bright sky, barely skimmed by a few high-flying wisps of cloud, we drove across the bridge spanning the Tay and headed south for the charming streets of St Andrews. We didn’t stop there, however, but took the coast road south to the East Neuk of Fife with its string of ancient fishing ports: Upper and Lower Largo, Cellardyke, St Monans, Anstruther, Crail, Pittenweem. The names alone form a kind of music. Lower Largo was the birthplace of Alexander Selkirk, whose adventures formed the inspiration for Robinson Crusoe, and his statue stands above the doorway of the house on the site of his home. Anstruther houses the museum dedicated to the history of fishing on the northeast coast of Scotland, a cruel history, a maker of widows and orphans.

This is proving to be a hectic month. Since early August, I have been working on my new website with DiscoverWriters, part of Pedalo website designers. Not a lot happened for the first six weeks, but progress has now speeded up and we’re moving towards completion by the end of October. I wanted a particular look for my website, rather different from the sites the designers had produced before, which resulted in some shaking of heads (if you can shake your head over the internet). However, they’ve accepted the challenge and I think we’re all happy with the result. It was a challenge for me too, to decide what to include and how to arrange it. I wanted to incorporate enough for it to be worth a visit, but at the same time to make it quick and easy to use. The balance seems about right now. I’ll be writing a column like this each month, which you will find on the website. You can also join the mailing list by clicking here.